National Youth Convention: A Call to Action by the Young People of Kenya

Dear Friends,

Our country is in a total disarray. Its now Official. The Coalition
Government has made Kenya a FAILED STATE. We got to do something about it.

The National Youth Convention would like to call upon all young Kenyans to rise up and save Kenya from the mismanagement and total confusion that the Political class have resorted to.

The Women have been able to catch the attention of both the local and international communities in calling for abstinence not for the sake of it but for the evil bedeviling this country. Their efforts must be lauded.

The pressure must now be sustained all the way to the ballot day.

Steps to Act on;

We would like to start national activities that are going to set the agenda for discussion all the households in the country on the reform agenda. All means at our disposal should be used. Initiatives at regional provincial and district levels need to be given support. Do not allow your member of parliament to come to the constituency and go Scot free without addressing the issues that are affecting the people. Our leaders MUST be held accountable for the promises they made during the last general election and the livelihoods of all Kenyans need to have improved given the promises.

We need to petition the government on its lack of goodwill to address the ever increasing youth unemployment, massive killings by the state and agents of the state, illegal gangs and thugs, the governance crisis, the status of IDPs and the myriads of challenges that Kenyans are going through now.

Alternative Leadership

It is apparent that the current leadership is not going to protect its people even from external aggression as is being seen by the Forces from Uganda in the case of Migingo and now all the beacons separating Kenya and Uganda on the West Pokot Border have been removed by the Uganda Military and the Uganda Security Forces have been deployed to take over our land.

The Young People need to now arise and present themselves to the people so that they can be elected to take over from the current octogenarians and corrupt politicians.

The NYC calls upon those who are interested in Leadership at Parliamentary, Civic, and professional Bodies to present their intent so that we can start profiling them. The intents should be sent to convener@nyckenya.org

A criteria shall be reached at on democratic process on the NYC forum. The Young Leaders are being called upon to organize for activities at local level that will be coordinated in accordance to ensure the messages are passed on to the leadership. We need to start preparing now for the massive groundswell. Each strategy and tactic will be released at a time.

The messages are ready. We now need to work together in holding this government accountable and finally taking over leadership.

The challenge is huge, the problem is real, the road ahead will be rough and tough. We will either decide to support the same politicians or make that decision to remove them. Our generation, MUST fulfill its mission for this country. We have the numbers. We have the energy. We have one common enemy. Let us take the POWER back to the PEOPLE. PEOPLE .... POWER.

The Forum is open to your suggestions before we settle on the national day that we are going to launch our Onslaught on the current regime.

Please let us be honest with each other and come up with a clear way forward. Vijana Tujipange..... People .... Power.

Emmanuel Dennis
Convener

Business activism: Positively transform Kenya with the 2009 Budget Campaign

As any entrepreneur knows, business in the current economic climate is becoming well-nigh impossible.

With inflation adversely impacting raw material and final product prices, instability as a result of political bickering, a tax regime that places punitive impositions on micro-enterprises as well as dwindling consumer purchasing power, Kenyan small business enterprises are now under threat.

A few weeks ago on this blog, we decried the fact that the way the government to which we pay taxes was spendthrift, positing that if it were a business, it would have collapsed ages ago.

Well the season of the National Budget has come upon us again. And this time we can make our representatives to parliament more accountable by ensuring that government expenditure provisions reflect the will of the people of Kenya.

As the accountability portal Mars Group and the Partnership for change point out:

“The National Budget as presently constituted is enmeshed in corrupt and wasteful expenditure and there is need for Kenyans to educate each other on this so that we can pressure our representatives to scrutinize the budget to identify such expenditure. Savings can be used to boost development expenditure.”

As entrepreneurs are the main drivers of the economy, we should be in the fore-front of such an initiative. For instance we can demand accountability from our parliamentary representatives on the following:

• A reduction in the size of the Government of Kenya via the enactment of a statute pursuant to section 16 of the Constitution to cap the number of Executive Cabinet Ministries; and the need for integrity criteria for public service.

• A reduction of the recurrent expenditure of Government and the setting of ceilings on recurrent expenditure.

• Demand for full accountability and transparency in the External Public Debt Register which records all debts incurred by the Government of Kenya with international multi-lateral, bi-lateral and commercial creditors.

Apart from contacting your MP, you can also write a letter to the Commissioner General of the Kenya Revenue Authority (either when making payments or not) to register your displeasure that you are fulfilling your business obligations, albeit to a government that does not manage its resources responsibly.

Or, you can join the Partnership for Change 2009 Budget campaign to mobilize public support so that the Government of Kenya becomes accountable and transparent in the borrowing and implementation of the funds it collects from the public in taxes.

This time the onus is on us entrepreneurs to make the change we wish to see in Kenya today.

Update: read Kachwanya's take on the upcoming Budget in "A Letter That Finance Minister will never read".